Guarantees weren’t part of the job, and chances were that Sophie was already dead. He wasn’t sure how he’d react if he came upon her slender body, so full of power and will, pale and empty on the floor of Oliver’s torture room. Everything he’d learned about Synthesis in Paris had convinced him that Oliver was no innocent.
The worst was what Caleb had uncovered while Aidan and Adele made their way to Paris. Armed with the information Sophie had given him, he’d hacked into one of Oliver’s computer networks and ferreted out more information about Synthesis. About how the virus was weaponized by Oliver’s people—not by Lyle’s. The part that put a cold ball of horror in his throat was the notes on Izzy.
Oliver really had used her like a lab rat.
It was late and most of the agents were gone, which helped relieve some of the nastiness of breaking into a place with people he knew. Watching them hit the floor still wasn’t easy, but he consoled himself that they’d wake up.
Oliver, on the other hand, wasn’t going to wake up once Aidan was done with him.
They stepped into the secondary elevator and rode down deep into the Earth. Nerves were riding high on all of them—maybe the people who were already there were down for the count, but there was no guarantee that someone else wouldn’t show up and raise the alarm. Aidan and Caleb knew the back ways out, but they weren’t necessarily a path to freedom. He didn’t care about himself—he always knew he’d get killed on the job—but he wanted to make sure Sophie was free.
She’d already suffered enough at the hands of his boss.
Aidan could feel his breath seeping out in small bursts as they hurried down the icy corridor. At the base of a small stairway was the door where he knew Sophie would be if she was here at all. A light glowed from under it.
Signaling Caleb and Adele back, Aidan pushed through the door.
Everything hurt as the man laid heated metal against her leg, laughing when she jerked away from him. Oliver had spoken the truth: Joey really liked to hurt women.
While the metal warmed until it glowed, he’d spoken to her in a whispery voice about killing the young woman that Lyle sent to replace Venus. Determined not to let her rage show, Sophie had pressed her lips together and stared at the wall. Even when he went into vivid detail and pressed his lips so close she could feel his breath on her ear, she said nothing. Made no expression.
But she couldn’t help how her face changed as he burned her skin.
He pulled it back and grinned at her with his lizard mouth. “How does that feel?”
“Great, thanks.” She was choking on her own saliva, but still managed to meet his eyes.
“The second time will be better.”
She closed her eyes and braced herself, determined not to give him the satisfaction he was trying to find in what he was doing to her. She waited for the pain.
None came.
There was a thump, then a blast and the sound of something heavy hitting the floor.
“You’re going to be okay,” a feminine voice whispered, and Sophie didn’t open her eyes. She didn’t want to see whatever game Oliver had planned to torture her emotionally. By the time he’d left for Rome—and she prayed Adele wasn’t there yet—Sophie knew she wasn’t getting out.
Her binds were clipped and someone brushed her hair back from her face. Opening her eyes, she saw the last face she expected.
“Aidan?”
Behind him was an unknown man. Adele was on her knees next to Sophie, binding the cuts in her arm with gauze.
“Your hands,” Aidan said, his face harsh with sorrow. Sophie looked at him, confused.
“Why are you here?”
“I’m here for you. I told you that I’d never let you get away from me.”
“But, Oliver…”
“You were right about him. Let’s get the fuck out of here before he gets back.”
“I need to take care of her hands,” Adele said, her fingers gentle on Sophie’s wrists. “What did he do?”
“Nailed them to the table,” Caleb replied. Aidan turned to look at him, fury in his eyes.
“You knew he was going to do this?”
“No,” Caleb said, holding out a hand to forestall any argument. “But it’s obvious. Look at the gouges in the wood. Look at her hands.”
“We have stuff to help you get well,” Adele said. “Let’s get back to our place in Belgravia so we can take care of you.”
Sophie leaned into Aidan heavily when he pulled her from the chair after Adele finished dressing her wounds. Joey’s corpse on the ground was a welcome sight. She looked up at the man who’d brought others to save her and saw his eyes fixed on the television screen.
“That’s your sister?” he asked.
Adele’s eyes shot to the screen and her face pale. “Oh, no.” Oliver gouged a knife deeper into Veronica’s forearm and leaned in close to see her pupils dilate. Adele crossed to the television and put her hand on the screen, stroking Veronica’s cheek. “God, no.”
“Don’t watch it,” Sophie said weakly. Aidan and Adele were both transfixed by the screen, their eyes wide and unmoving.
When neither obeyed her, she crossed the room and turned off the television. Pressing the button on the DVD player was agony, but she opened the drive and pulled the disc out, handing it to Adele who tucked it into her jacket. “I don’t want him to have this,” she explained.
“He made you watch?”
“For hours.” The horror of the day hadn’t sunk into her yet. She felt numb.
“Let’s get home,” Adele said, wrapping an arm around Sophie.
“We can’t.” All three of them turned to look at her, but Sophie held firm. “We have to get to Rome.”
“You need treatment,” Caleb said, looking at her wounds.
“Synthesis is happening today. It’s a test to show people exactly what the power of the bomb is. They won’t even have the option to stop it.”
“How do you know?”
“Oliver got information and told me. He thought I was going to die soon, I guess.”
“What if he lied?”
“We still have to go.”
Caleb was the first to agree, nodding his head as Adele and Aidan fought their obvious desire to see Sophie bound with bandages and drugged with painkillers. Finally, they gave in too.
“How are we going to get there?” Adele asked.
“Time is a factor,” Caleb said. “I can fly us.”
“Let’s go.”
Sophie took a step forward, intent on following Adele and Caleb as they walked out of the dungeon. Aidan came up behind her and lifted her into his arms, pulling her close against his chest.
“You can’t defend yourself if you’re holding me,” she said.
“I can do anything to keep you safe. Besides, I’m not letting you walk out of here in your condition. Adele and Caleb will clear any threats. All I need to do is take care of you.”
His muscled chest was warm against her face, and Sophie closed her eyes tight against him, letting the scent and heat of his body soothe her ragged mind. He carried her though the facility, not stopping as they passed bodies lying on the floor.
“Did you kill them?”
“They’re just knocked out.”
Once they were on the street, they walked briskly until they could find and stop a taxi, ordering it to take them to Heathrow. In the back, Aidan held Sophie close and for the first time in years, she honestly felt safe.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Italy
“I know where Oliver is, but you’re asking for too much.”
Tensions were high after hours of roaming the streets, looking for some indication that the end of the city was near. But it wasn’t so easy to find one madman in a large city. Hearing that Oliver had been located sent a wave of relief through him.
“You have to stop using me for this shit,” William said to Aidan. “First you ask me to confirm that Oliver is in Rome and to keep it quiet. Now you want me to pi
npoint him?”
“Can you?”
“This is fucked up man.” Aidan knew that meant yes.
“William, everything is fucked up right now.” He knew that being harsh wasn’t the best way to get the tech genius to help him, but he was blacklisted in Second Division and William owed him favors.
“How bad?”
“Not end of the world, but damn if a lot of it won’t be going dark.”
“Got you.” He heard typing, then a deep sigh. “It looks like he’s at Biblioteca Casanatense. Maybe the top floor or on the roof, even. What’s going on?”
“You in Italy?”
“I’m in New York.”
“Stay there. Don’t worry about it.” He cut the call on the man’s irritated sigh and turned to Sophie. “Radio Caleb and Adele. Have them fly over Biblioteca Casanatense to see if he’s on the roof.”
She did. They adjusted their course to look for the man while Aidan and Sophie ran through the street. In the plane, he’d treated her wounds and stroked her face while she rested. Once they touched down, Adele and Caleb had taken the sky and Aidan and Sophie had taken the streets. He knew she had to be running on pure adrenaline. He wanted to wrap her in quilts and have her sleep for a week, but they needed all hands at the ready.
He promised himself that when it was over, he’d take her on a real vacation.
They reached the library and pushed through the doors. “Check the top floors. I’ll get the roof. Radio me if you see him. Don’t engage alone.” She nodded and they separated. Watching her walk away from him burned a pit in his gut.
He broke through the door to the roof, immediately spotting Oliver at its center, kneeling over a bomb.
“Oliver, don’t,” Aidan said, slowly approaching his boss. “Too many people are going to die.”
“I know.”
“You don’t even need the money.”
“It was never about money, Aidan.” Oliver’s face was haggard in the bright light. It was too beautiful a day for so many people to be in danger. “It’s about power. If we control this, we have all the power in the world. All the terrible things you’ve seen? That ends when we control this and the world knows they have no choice but to fall in line.”
“It doesn’t work like that. Someone will make a bigger bomb. A worse disease.”
“No,” Oliver said, shaking his head. “This one terrible thing will clear the way for good to follow. And Aidan, we’ll be at the top.”
“Not if we die when you set it off.”
“We won’t. I’m going to change the clock to two hours. You’ll come with me.”
“I wouldn’t,” Aidan said. “Not ever. Not after what you did to Sophie.”
“She almost killed me.”
“I saw the video.” Oliver blanched when Aidan spoke, his bright eyes fading just a little.
“She killed Izzy. I know what I did was extreme, but she killed my little girl.”
“You shot at Veronica and Iz stepped in front of her. I always thought Veronica had used her as a shield, but I was wrong. You’d already killed her with Synthesis. She was just finishing the job and protecting someone who was actually trying to help.”
“Aidan…”
“No more lies, Oliver. Let’s just go.”
“If I leave without setting this off, they’ll kill me.”
“If you move to press the button, I’ll shoot you in your fucking face.” Aidan hoped Oliver couldn’t see the indecision in his eyes. He wanted to taste the bastard’s blood for what he’d done for Sophie, but with Oliver went his last shot at Bartek. Only Oliver and Second Division had the kind of access necessary to get him near that fucker without returning to the ring. Now that he’d walked out on a fight, it wasn’t an option.
“You can’t kill me,” Oliver said, lips curving in a smile. “I can see it in your face.”
“It’s not you,” Aidan said. “You’re a fucking blight on the world. It’s Bartek.”
“Let this go and I’ll help you find him.”
“What kind of man do you think I am? I’m not trading millions of lives for my vendetta.”
“Then let me go and I won’t set off the bomb. I’ll go into hiding. I’ll help you bring down the rest of Second Division. Bartek too.”
“No.” Both men turned to see Sophie standing in the doorway of the rooftop. Her beautiful face was pale around her bruises, but determination shone through her movements. Her gun was pointed directly at Oliver’s head. “You don’t get to walk away.”
“Bitch,” Oliver snapped, a vein in his head throbbing.
“Move away from the bomb.” Aidan turned back to Oliver to see that he’d moved back close to the bomb.
“Fuck you.” Oliver saw death in her eyes. With a last quirk of his lips, he reached his hand out and pressed the button, starting the countdown on the bomb. There were five minutes on the timer.
Sophie pulled the trigger, sending a single bullet into his head. A thin stream of blood ran down his face and Aidan blanched.
“I’m sorry,” she said simply. “I couldn’t let him leave.”
“I know.”
“He wouldn’t have helped you, Aidan. He’d have killed both of us.”
“I know.” He reached for her and placed a soft kiss on her forehead. “You need to leave.”
“What?”
“I don’t know if I can stop this bomb. Call for Caleb and Adele right now and tell them to come back and grab you. I’m going to stay until this is detonated or it’s all over.”
Sophie nodded and moved to the other side of the roof, trying to get reception on the mobile phone. Aidan watched her slender form move and felt his heart warm. Just looking at her was enough to break through the ice in which he’d buried himself so many years ago. Dying on this rooftop was a small price to pay if it meant that he could save her. He’d pay any price for her, because she was his life.
He knelt before the bomb and took out his pocket knife, using the thin blade to open the seal that protected its internal workings. Once it was open, he saw the complex jumble of wires and, at its heart, Synthesis suspended in saline.
Three minutes. He had three minutes left to stop it from killing him and so many others. At least, he thought, Sophie, Adele and Caleb would fly out of the city quickly enough to escape the initial blast.
He started pulling apart the guts, hoping that he wouldn’t release a failsafe that would eject Synthesis into him, creating a hot zone of the disease. He was so focused on his labor that he jerked when he felt a presence behind him.
“I told you to go.”
“I’m not leaving you.” Sophie dropped a hand to his shoulder, then he felt the cool press of her lips on his head. “I told Caleb and Adele to get out of town. You and me, though? We’re in this together. Even if I could get far enough away, I’d hate myself for not staying.”
“Why?” His fingers twisted the wires apart, examined each one as he tried to decide how to stop it from detonating.
“I’m in love with you,” she said. There were two minutes left, and she loved him. Both truths collided in his head and all he wanted was years with her, years to spend loving her as much as she deserved. Aidan wanted to take her to bed and make love to her until the horror of her past was dampened and then to take her into the world and show her things to make her eyes smile like they had in the family photographs he’d gone through when she left for the market in Paris.
He looked back at her, lips curving up. “I’m in love with you, too. In my whole life, there’s never been anyone else but you. No one that meant everything.”
She fingers tightened on his shoulder and he turned back to the bomb. They were silent as he finally picked out a green wire and slid his knife along it. One minute left on the clock.
“You could run,” he said.
“I’ll never run away from you again.” Sophie sunk to her knees next to him and wrapped an arm around his back. “It’s you and me. No matter what.”
“N
o matter what.” He slipped the sharp edge of the knife down and sliced through the wire.
For a beat, it felt like the world had ended. His gut went cold and his hand slipped down to entwine with hers. But nothing happened. They just sat on the rooftop together in front of the defunct bomb. Then she wrapped her arms around him and burst into sobs.
He held her under the dome of the sky and stroked her hair. It was all going to be okay now. It would all be okay.
Epilogue
America
“Help me with these boxes.” Aidan rushed through the entry to the office and grabbed the large cardboard box from Sophie’s hands.
“I told you not to lift anything heavy,” he said.
“I’m completely healed.” She smiled at him, glad to see the humor returning to his face. After they’d contained the bomb and left Rome, he’d sunk into gloom for a few days and she’d worried the smile that charmed her wouldn’t be back any time soon. But it had slowly come back as he’d come to terms with Oliver’s death and the loyalty of much of Second Division. He and Caleb were both blacklisted now, but it didn’t matter anymore.
After things had wrapped up and they’d reported in to Lyle—who Aidan still seemed to hate—he’d whisked her away to the Maldives for what he’d called a rain check on her vacation.
She stretched and watched him add the box to the others. Two weeks of sun, sand and sex with the gorgeous man in front of her had definitely helped her get things straight in her head.
That’s why she’d put in her notice to Lyle.
He hadn’t been happy about it, but he’d accepted it—even when she made it clear that he was getting neither Synthesis nor the weaponization notes they’d recovered.
One night in the Maldives, after Aidan thrust deep into her and made her come screaming while her nails dug furrows in his back, she started to question all the choices she’d made since her twin had died. More than that, she started to question why Lyle hadn’t cared enough to send someone to help her retake Veronica. In the end, she decided, it was a question of assets and allocation. But that wasn’t good enough.
Blacklisted: Blacklist Operations Book #1 Page 23
